How did the City and County of Broomfield respond?

The Broomfield City Staff provided responses to our questions, and we thank them for that. While we appreciate their response, we have remaining and additional concerns based on those responses which we outline in our follow up document.

Here is a summary of our concerns based on their responses:

• We are concerned that the answers provided to several of the questions referred to the current 2025 Annual Budget document, shown on their website; which is different than the 2025 Proposed Annual Budget which we based our questions on. While we appreciate the references to the 2025 Annual Budget, this is very confusing because the 2025 Proposed Annual Budget document that we reviewed for our questions is no longer available on the broomfield.org budget webpage.

  (We have a saved copy of the 2025 Proposed Annual Budget which we have made available to the public.)

• Many responses to the questions provided by the CCOB either did not answer the question and/or requires additional clarification.

• A few responses referred to other documents, staff memos, or city council meetings for the answers. As we reviewed these documents, in many cases, answers were not provided in those referenced documents. In the spirit of transparency, we have provided follow-ups on those questions.

• A number of questions reference incorrect tables / figures, especially as it relates to the water fund, sewer fund, and water reclamation fund. We respectfully ask that they confirm that our responses to the answers provided on several questions have the proper references (i.e. - see question #11(b) in our follow up document).

• We see substantial future increases in the enterprise commitments that are not accounted or budgeted for (see questions #41, 42 in our follow up document). In these areas, we are asking for additional clarification on how the CCOB anticipates funding these future commitments.

• We are concerned that there is no public information available regarding the long-term strategic plan for the Capital Improvement Projects (CIP), beyond the 5 Year CIP. There are a number of future growth projects, mandates, and obligations with significant funding requirements to complete those projects. The community deserves to understand and review what the City’s long term strategic budget plan is, especially for the long-term projects even if there is not an fully vetted estimate.

• We also ask throughout our questions why the “Actuals” in the proposed budget are not tied to the audited budget, known as the Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports (ACFR), and are told that a budget is just a point in time. In our view, the audited financials in the 2023 ACFR should used and/or referenced in the City’s 2025 Annual Budget. Rather than this being the case, the CCOB response indicates that “Both the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) and the Budget represent two (2) different periods and financial reporting information. The ACFR reflects the actuals for the prior fiscal year.” (see question #9(a) in our follow up question document). It is our view that the CCOB should be able to correlate 2023 actuals in their 2025 budget numbers Which we think should be the audited numbers, just as we file income tax reports to the Internal Revenue Service every year which is based on the time period from January 1 and ending on December 31. This is a primary example as to why it is incredibly difficult for the public to assess what Broomfield is doing with your tax dollars to fund their budget when the budget is not correlated with previous year actual audited results.

At the bottom of this page, we have provided a few examples of, questions, responses, and follow up that we are engaged with the City and County of Broomfield so that you, the taxpayer, can review yourself.

So what’s next?

We submitted our follow up comments, concerns, and questions to the Broomfield Staff and Broomfield Council on December 30, 2024, which you can review here. We await the response for the Broomfield Staff to our follow up and look forward to the continued correspondence with them. When the information becomes available, we will update you here.

And, as always, don’t take our word for what we are asking or what we are summarizing here. Be active and engaged, and follow up with us or with the CCOB on the questions that you have.